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Lions Club rescinds St. Paul Park Heritage Days offer

Just weeks after submitting a proposal to run the 2014 Heritage Days festival, the St. Paul Park-Newport Lions Club rescinded its offer, St. Paul Park City Administrator Kevin Walsh confirmed Tuesday.

Last week, John Wright, the club’s president, contacted the city and opted out, leaving former festival organizer Jim Domeier as the lone proposer planning to take over, or in his case continue, the event.

The Lions Club brought forward a tentative proposal several days after the Dec. 2 application deadline passed. The club cited their group of 70-plus members as adequate to take over the festival operations.

However, Walsh said it ultimately decided against the venture, at least for now.

“(The Lions Club) said that they wanted to gain more knowledge of how the event is run,” Walsh said.

Despite announcing his retirement from running the event last year, Domeier stepped forward last month citing his 12 years of dedication to the event as his reason.

“I’d hate to see it go away,” he added.

The St. Paul Park City Council is expected to discuss the festival’s operations at its upcoming regular meeting.